Nepali consumers have been forced to pay more for electronic gadgets due to the appreciation of US dollar in comparison to Nepali rupee despite them getting cheaper in the international market due to development of technology. Entrepreneurs claim that the price of imported gadgets has been automatically affected as the US dollar which could be exchanged at Rs 86 per unit until a few weeks ago has now climbed to Rs 96. “We were preparing to reduce price from July 1. But we have been forced to reconsider the decision as the dollar has become expensive,” Managing Director of the International Marketing Services (IMS), the authorized dealer of Samsung mobiles, Dipak Malhotra said. “Price of Samsung mobiles has been dropping internationally. But it will be hard for the Nepali consumers to benefit from that this time,” he added. Price of cell-phones is projected to rise by up to 10 percent even in the Indian market due to the increase in exchange rate of US dollar. PTI reported that Nokia, Samsung, Lava and other brands are preparing to raise price of their products as Indian rupee has depreciated by 30 percent in the past two years. President of the Nepal Mobile Association Purushottam Basnet said Nepali traders are in favor of not raising the price even by keeping a lower profit margin. “Sales will be directly hit if we were to raise the price. We will rather not bring in new models and sell the old stock as we cannot afford to raise price,” he added. Managing Director of CTV Mobile Alive Glider concurred and added that they will wait and watch for now as the rise of dollar is unnatural. “Nepal cannot make any efforts to stop the rising value of dollar,” Malhotra stated. “The Nepali consumers are forced to suffer for being a third-world country. We can neither stop the value of dollar from rising nor can we take other measures to reduce the price of gadgets,” he added. He said there can be no other measures as only value-added tax (VAT) is imposed on mobiles. Basnet, however, claimed that the sale of cheap mobiles/tablets will not decrease as the price of gadgets produced in India and China will not rise immediately. He hoped that sales can improve as quality gadgets are being produced even in these countries in recent times. Glider said sale of second-hand gadgets will also rise in this situation. Smart-phones of Samsung, Nokia, LG, Sony, Blackberry and Apple are not produced in India. Entrepreneurs said the price of Karbonn, Colors, Spice and other brands produced in India will not rise for now. But if the dollar continues to become more expensive, the price of these mobiles that are just assembled in India will also feel the pressure due to the increased cost of importing parts.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 01:14:24 +0000
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